Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Want to know about me? I was reading Doc Searls' Weblog item about having an Enneagram Type 9 Peacemaker personality.  I had never heard of this or the Enneagram Institute that offers the test. So, I took the sample test and I came out -- with flying colors -- as a Type 5 Investigator.  "The Intense, Cerebral Type:  Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive and Isolated.  The Schizoid Avoidant and Schizotypal Personality Disorders." I love it! The good component is I'm supposed to be a brilliant visionary with a penetrating world view who can master whatever I'm interested in.  The bad part is I can reject and repulse other people and become reclusive, isolated from reality, eccentric and nihilistic. Just because I think most people in the world are doltish bores who don't spend enough time reading, I see no reason for the test to be so, well, testy, about me! Others who fit this mold include Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Stanley Kubick, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Bobby Fischer, Friedrich Neitzsche and Agent Muldar. The Enneagram Institute cautions that the free sample test is more for fun than accuracy, and suggests taking the "scientific" and more comprehensive $10 test.  Maybe I will.  I'm not the sort of person who reads moronic self-help books, but this seems kind of fun. Doc also took the PTypes Temperament Test and it determined he was an Idealist.  I took it, too.  I am a Rationalist; rationalists "want to understand and gain power over nature." With love for all personkind I probably should be institutionalized for the good of kind, decent, god-fearing humans.  Speaking of....I am reminded of one of my favorite lines from a movie.  In "Blazing Saddles," Cleavon Little, the black sheriff, has been rejected by the townspeople he is trying to win over.  Gunslinger Gene Wilder, Little's only friend, tries to comfort him. Wilder says: "What did you expect?  'Welcome, sonny?'  'Make yourself at home.'  'Marry my daughter.'  You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers.  These are people of the land.  The common clay of the New West.  You know -- morons." I couldn't have said it better myself. Okay, it's time to get back to controlling the world.  Better living through wireless data. 6:37:45 PM

A pity:  $1 movie site shut down Too bad.  Movie88, with hundreds of movies online, has been shut down by its Taiwanese ISP, according to an article today in CNET News.  I watched three movies as part of an introductory offer of five free movies.  The ISP, HiNet, shut off Movie88.com's access -- without warning. Naturally, Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) is just thrilled. The MPA is to innovation as the Spanish Inquisition was to religious freedom. I am going to discuss streaming video and its relationship to wireless in the next issue of my Reiter's Block commentaries. My down-and-dirty evaluation of Movie88.com:  All the components of the value chain required for my streaming video experience were "good enough."  I would have paid $1 per month for three days of consecutive, unlimited use. Although there are many naysayers when it comes to streaming video over cellular, you simply shouldn't dismiss it.  You certainly have to cut through the hype vomited out by self-interested vendors.  But the concept makes sense if all components of the value chain are good enough.  That is a lot tougher to do with cellular.  Of course, there's also 802.11..... 3:32:40 PM